Big Island Trip Report - From Turtles to Tubes, From Hiking to Hot Springs (May 2007)
May 15th, 2007, 01:08 PM
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Big Island Trip Report - From Turtles to Tubes, From Hiking to Hot Springs (May 2007)
Trip report – Hawaii’s Big Island
These boards are always so helpful, I wanted to give back a little. We spent 10 days on the Big Island, mainly staying in a friend’s condo in Kona and using his car, (not so helpful for those looking for accommodations) but also spent a few nights in B&B’s on the Volcano / Hilo side. Much of what we did was based on that old constant, The Big Island Revealed, as well as chatting with folks we met along the way. Overall, I thought we easily could have filled far more time on the BI. Other random impression – goodness, there are mongooses everywhere! But here’s the scoop on what we did…
Arrival (Friday) – We had a pretty (long!) uneventful trip from Washington, DC through San Francisco to Kona, arriving around 8 PM. Love that outdoor airport! We took the Speedi Shuttle to our condo, near the country club at Keauhou Bay – highly recommend them, we had the shuttle to ourselves (both ways!) and they had great service. I believe it was $38 each way for the two of us. Our first stop was the KTA (grocery) for breakfast supplies – definitely nice to have a kitchen at hand!
Day 1 (Saturday) – Kona / Hapuna Beach / Kohala / Kiholo Bay
After a lovely breakfast on our lanai, we drove into Kona and wandered around town a bit, checking in with the dive shop where we’d booked our manta ray dive. Had fun at the farmer’s market, where I bought some tasty honey. Decided to hit the beach, so we packed up our snorkel gear and headed towards Kohala to Hapuna Beach. We were hoping to pass some food along the way, but ended up eating at the little café at the beach – overpriced but not bad. Beach was very nice, and we did some snorkeling on the left-hand side, which was so-so, but close to the shore. Heading back home, we hiked to Kiholo Bay (b /w mile marker 82/83 on Route 19, path not as obvious as book makes it sound). This was a short and easy hike, although HOT in the middle of the afternoon. Passed lots of feral goats on the way. Kiholo Bay itself was pretty, although the snorkeling was not very exciting. However, we then walked a short distance up the coast (away from, not towards, the Bali House) and came to a very secluded cove where there were no less than seven huge sea turtles basking in the sun! We hung out with them for a while, puttering around the shallow and warm waters of the cover before hiking back and driving home to Kona. Had dinner at Lulu’s, after being tired and sweaty a cold margarita and bar food sounded pretty good!
Day 2 (Sunday) – Keauhou Bay / Manta Ray dive
Since we had our dive scheduled for this afternoon / evening, we had somewhat of a lazy morning. Took a walk down the road to Keauhou Bay, explored the grounds of the Sheraton (lovely!) and shopped for lunch at Keauhou Shopping Center, which we enjoyed on the lanai back at home. At around two o’clock we headed to the harbor to catch our boat – our trip was with Jack’s Diving Locker, who were fantastic! Keller Lantos, especially was amazing – he had been recommended to us by a scuba acquaintance. On our way out to the dive site, Garden Eel Cove, we saw dozens of spinner dolphins, playing and jumping in front of the boat – gorgeous! We did two dives, one at the reef (saw tons of fish and some eels) and then the night dive with the mantas. Basically, everyone goes down to the ocean floor, where there’s a fixed light, and sits in a big circle with flashlights pointed upward. Bring visited and up close and personal with the mantas is an extraordinary and indescribable experience!!! Funny thing was, it wasn’t so easy to sit on the bottom, there was considerable surge. I grabbed a rock and hung on for dear life, thinking boy, is my buoyancy control lousy and cursing myself for being such a novice diver. Afterwards I found out even the most experienced divers were having a terrible time! But when the rays appeared, the surge just didn’t matter…. They fed us on the boat (sandwiches) but I never have an appetite when I’m diving. We also purchased a DVD of the dive from Keller (whose underwater video skills are truly amazing) for the rather steep price of $100 (but worth every penny!) One of the nice things about Jack’s is you can rent an underwater digital camera for no cost, but if you decide to download the pics, it’s $40. This was appreciated, because the surge was rough enough, we didn’t really get any worthwhile picture.
Day 3 (Monday) – Kealakeakua Bay / Captain Cook / Place of Refuge / Two Steps
Rented a two person kayak at the place across from Kahalu’u Beach and headed off to Kealakeakua Bay. The cement bunker from which you launch your kayak is quite high off the water, and a little bit intimidating. But my husband and I managed to do it ourselves with no problem and off we went the mile across the bay to the Captain Cook memorial. Sadly, no dolphins but we’d gotten our fix the night before! Snorkeling at Captain Cook’s is fantastic, very calm, shallow water and a bazillion colorful fish and some eels. Wish I’d had my underwater camera here! Ate a picnic lunch on the rocks, spent lots of time snorkeling (forgetting to reapply sunscreen on my back, a mistake I would regret for the rest of the trip…) and then headed back across the bay. Fortunately, we had a couple of guys help us out of the kayak back at the bunker – my husband swears we could have done it ourselves, but I reserve some doubts… Then on we went to the Place of Refuge. This was smaller than I’d been expecting, didn’t take long at all, so we did some more snorkeling in the Honaunau Bay (Two Steps) – this is a beautiful reef and huge!! One note, we had planned originally to shore dive at this site (and on this trip) but found that the snorkeling was so good everywhere, there wasn’t a need. Got our kayak back in time and had dinner at the Kona Inn, where I had a macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi that I am still dreaming about. Entrees were huge here, I’m glad we didn’t order starters.
Day 4 (Tuesday) – Greenwell Coffee / South Point / Green Sand Beach / Black Sand Beach (My Island B&B)
We began our round the island trip, heading south where we stopped at Greenwell Farms for the coffee tasting and tour. I hadn’t been interested in doing this, having toured coffee plantations in Costa Rica, but my husband was and it turned out to be a short, but fascinating tour. The work going into the coffee made me appreciate the price a bit more! Picked up a couple of bags and headed on our way. We stopped at the super friendly South Kona Fruit Stand, where we had thick and delicious smoothies for lunch. Then on to South Point – beautiful and very windy! We hiked to the Green Sand Beach, took us about 45 minutes. Here are my thoughts on the GSB, since the questions we were asked over and over again was “Was it worth it?” If you have a 4WD, the answer is definitely yes. The way to the beach is dusty, grassy, slightly rocky prairie-like terrain – don’t be tempted to try it without 4WD. Not hard hiking, but hot and boring. The beach itself – you have to climb down a heck of a slope to get to it – is unique and isolated. The green sand is not in itself that exciting. We were fortunate that by the time we left we had the place to ourselves, which is an interesting experience – being alone at an isolated beach with beautiful blue water. But when you get down to it, it’s still just a beach and there are lots of beautiful ones on the island. In retrospect, I’m glad I went, but my trip could have been complete without it. Stopped briefly at Panalu’u Black Sand Beach – there were some turtles here, but nothing to top Kiholo Bay. Arrived at My Island B&B in Volcano. My Island’s grounds are beautiful. The rooms are nothing to write home about, they remind me a bit of a motel, but the hosts, Kai in particular, are spectacular. Very, very friendly and incredibly knowledgeable about the region. They even have their own brochures and guides written up (free!) for activities and hikes around the region which were very handy. It was also a fun crowd – everyone shares stories about lava hikes, etc. in the morning. Simple but tasty breakfast and they provide flashlights, etc. for lava hikes. My only complaint is that the walls are a bit thin, so you can hear your neighbors (TV, snoring, etc.) really well. We had dinner at Thai Thai (yummy, but spendy for Thai food) and loaded up on supplies at the general store.
Day 5 (Wednesday) – Volcano NP / Lava Hike (My Island B&B)
Woke up to a drizzly and cool day – not unusual in Volcano, we learned. Toured the Vistior’s Center and hit all of the sites on the Crater Rim Drive. We were hoping to do the Wild Lava Tube hike (12 people, only on Wednesdays and Saturdays), but sadly we didn’t act in time and it was full. I highly recommend you bring a flashlight and explore the unlit section of the Thurston Lava Tube, it was fun and a great way to escape the tour groups. Had lunch at the Country Club and checked out the Volcano Winery, where we had some tasty Guava wine. Got take out dinner at the Lava Rock Café and geared up for our hike out to see the lava. I’m going to put the lava hike info in a separate post, because I know we were desperate for information about it before we went and I learned a lot from the experience. Short story: 7 hours of hiking over lava, saw amazing lava flows into ocean, worth every minute. Easier in some ways than I expected, harder in others.
Day 5 – (Thursday) Hilo / Imailoa / Pahoa (Hot Springs) (Old Hawaiian B&B)
Another rainy morning in Volcano. We had planned to do the Kilauea Iki hike, but decided we were still a bit tuckered from the previous night’s hike. So after another tasty breakfast and chat with Kai, we headed off to Hilo where we checked in a little early at our B&B Old Hawaiian. Our room here was gorgeous with a romantic soaking tub, the setting was beautiful, Lori and Stewart very friendly and the breakfast was out of this world! Can’t recommend this place highly enough. We also had to stop on the way at the Big Island’s biggest tourist trap, Hilo Hattie’s because my husband had managed to win the Halfway to Hawaii contest (guessed the time within 20 seconds of when we’d hit the halfway point) on our United flight and we claimed his prize – a box of chocolates! Wandered a bit around downtown Hilo, stopping by to see the public library to see the famous Naha Stone pushed by King Kamehameha. Checked out Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots (neither were terribly exciting, in my opinion) and then headed to the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center at the University of Hawaii. This place has only been open a year and it was fascinating – a mix of very scientific astronomy and Hawaiian culture (the connection between them, in short, was that the ancient Hawaiians navigated by the stars). Lots of hands on stuff for both kids and grownups, and lots and lots of information about the observatories at Mauna Kea, including a replica of the control room of one. If you’ve ever toured Mauna Kea and wished you could go into the observatories, this is the place for you! They also have a planetarium show, which is again a mix of Hawaiian culture and astronomy. We spent over two hours here. After bringing our heads out of the stars, we headed towards Pahoa, in the Puna District, to soak in the Ahalanui Hot Springs. Stopped along the way for lunch at the Black Rock Café in Pahoa (surprisingly good) and checked out the Lava Trees State Park (worth the ten minute stroll around). Ahalanui was a little disappointing, just a warm pool, and a bit grungy, but not a bad place to float around on the foam noodles kindly provided by the B&B. Warning – while there is a shower, there didn’t seem to be a place to change, beyond the Porta Potty. And everyone, I mean EVERYONE, warned us continually that car break-ins were a problem in Puna. We left everything at the B&B, so not a problem for us. We had dinner that night at the Hilo Bay Café. Although it is ominously located in a strip mall, it was one of the best meals of our trip – chic interior and imaginative and delicious food!
Day 6 (Friday) – The Upper Road / Akaka Falls / Botanical Garden / Waipio Valley
Headed north out of Hilo up the Hamakua Coast, continuing our loop, bidding a sad farewell to the Old Hawaiian. A local had recommended Thom Baker’s to us for malasadas, just outside of Hilo, but we found we were too stuffed from breakfast to stop! Went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which was absolutely gorgeous – really enjoyed the exotic flowers and singing birds. Paused at a random roadside convenience stored for incredibly delicious shave ice. Stopped by Akaka Falls and walked around to Kahuna Falls. Browsed a bit at the Woodwork Gallery and Café and continued on our merry way. Had lunch in Honoka’a at Jolene’s Kau Kau, basic diner kind of place. Then we set off to hike our way into Waipio Valley. The road down, I thought, was actually harder than the road back up, because it was really tough on the knees. But the valley is lush and Eden like. Unfortunately right now (May 2007) they are experiencing a drought so NO WATERFALLS! Very sad! Bigger problem for some of the residents who depend on the running water for electricity. Still we did encounter a wild horse, forded some streams, and enjoyed ourselves at the black sand beach. The hike back up wasn’t so bad, tiring, but we just took it slow. We rewarded ourselves for our efforts with malasadas at Tex’s. Next we headed towards Waimea, where I was determined to eat dinner at one of the tasty restaurants I’d heard so much about. Since we had all of our stuff with us, we changed in the car, going from sweaty, sandy, Waipio ragamuffins to presentable in no time at all. Once in a sundress with a little makeup on, I joked I had gone from beach to belle, which caused my husband to wryly point out that I spend an awful lot of time and product at home to achieve a nearly identical look! We had dinner at Daniel Thiebault’s, where the food was good (although not fantastic, ditto on the service) but the atmosphere was superb with excellent live music. We lingered after dinner listening for quite some time. Finally, back home to Kona, passing a few wild pigs on the dark road on the way home.
Day 7 (Saturday) – Kona / Beach at Mauna Kea resort
Given that our trip was pretty active, and this was our last full day, we decided to take it easy and relax on the beach. We had intended to go snorkeling down the street at Kahalu’u Beach, but we found it crowded and unrelaxing. So we headed back up towards Kohala, intending to grab lunch at Mauna Kea resort and check out the beach there. Sadly, the resort is still closed because of earthquake damage, and the beach was full (even closed, the resort limits the number of parking passes for the beach), so we ended up eating lunch at Café Pesto in Kawaihae (great service, food just OK). On our way back down, the Mauna Kea beach was open. Our best beach experience of the trip! Calm, crystal clear waters, gorgeous uncrowded beach and phenomenal snorkeling. We finally saw a turtle in the water, a huge one having his lunch, plus hordes of lovely fish, an enormous reef, tons of eels and even a sea snake. Spent all afternoon here, relaxing. We were hoping to have dinner at Killer Tacos, but it’s closed for dinner on Saturdays so we ended up at Drysdales Two, near where we were staying, which was perfectly fine.
Departure Day 8 (Sunday) – After an unexpectedly frantic morning due to a work-related emergency (during which we learned LOTS of things on the BI are closed during Mother’s Day!!) we caught our Speedi Shuttle back to the airport with no problems at all. Our trip to Chicago turned out to be surprisingly pleasant because we were accidentally upgraded to Economy Plus (yay, extra leg room!) and survived our red eye home to Washington!
Hope this proves useful to someone out there – I always found other people’s trip reports to be very helpful with our planning!! Cheers, Carrie
These boards are always so helpful, I wanted to give back a little. We spent 10 days on the Big Island, mainly staying in a friend’s condo in Kona and using his car, (not so helpful for those looking for accommodations) but also spent a few nights in B&B’s on the Volcano / Hilo side. Much of what we did was based on that old constant, The Big Island Revealed, as well as chatting with folks we met along the way. Overall, I thought we easily could have filled far more time on the BI. Other random impression – goodness, there are mongooses everywhere! But here’s the scoop on what we did…
Arrival (Friday) – We had a pretty (long!) uneventful trip from Washington, DC through San Francisco to Kona, arriving around 8 PM. Love that outdoor airport! We took the Speedi Shuttle to our condo, near the country club at Keauhou Bay – highly recommend them, we had the shuttle to ourselves (both ways!) and they had great service. I believe it was $38 each way for the two of us. Our first stop was the KTA (grocery) for breakfast supplies – definitely nice to have a kitchen at hand!
Day 1 (Saturday) – Kona / Hapuna Beach / Kohala / Kiholo Bay
After a lovely breakfast on our lanai, we drove into Kona and wandered around town a bit, checking in with the dive shop where we’d booked our manta ray dive. Had fun at the farmer’s market, where I bought some tasty honey. Decided to hit the beach, so we packed up our snorkel gear and headed towards Kohala to Hapuna Beach. We were hoping to pass some food along the way, but ended up eating at the little café at the beach – overpriced but not bad. Beach was very nice, and we did some snorkeling on the left-hand side, which was so-so, but close to the shore. Heading back home, we hiked to Kiholo Bay (b /w mile marker 82/83 on Route 19, path not as obvious as book makes it sound). This was a short and easy hike, although HOT in the middle of the afternoon. Passed lots of feral goats on the way. Kiholo Bay itself was pretty, although the snorkeling was not very exciting. However, we then walked a short distance up the coast (away from, not towards, the Bali House) and came to a very secluded cove where there were no less than seven huge sea turtles basking in the sun! We hung out with them for a while, puttering around the shallow and warm waters of the cover before hiking back and driving home to Kona. Had dinner at Lulu’s, after being tired and sweaty a cold margarita and bar food sounded pretty good!
Day 2 (Sunday) – Keauhou Bay / Manta Ray dive
Since we had our dive scheduled for this afternoon / evening, we had somewhat of a lazy morning. Took a walk down the road to Keauhou Bay, explored the grounds of the Sheraton (lovely!) and shopped for lunch at Keauhou Shopping Center, which we enjoyed on the lanai back at home. At around two o’clock we headed to the harbor to catch our boat – our trip was with Jack’s Diving Locker, who were fantastic! Keller Lantos, especially was amazing – he had been recommended to us by a scuba acquaintance. On our way out to the dive site, Garden Eel Cove, we saw dozens of spinner dolphins, playing and jumping in front of the boat – gorgeous! We did two dives, one at the reef (saw tons of fish and some eels) and then the night dive with the mantas. Basically, everyone goes down to the ocean floor, where there’s a fixed light, and sits in a big circle with flashlights pointed upward. Bring visited and up close and personal with the mantas is an extraordinary and indescribable experience!!! Funny thing was, it wasn’t so easy to sit on the bottom, there was considerable surge. I grabbed a rock and hung on for dear life, thinking boy, is my buoyancy control lousy and cursing myself for being such a novice diver. Afterwards I found out even the most experienced divers were having a terrible time! But when the rays appeared, the surge just didn’t matter…. They fed us on the boat (sandwiches) but I never have an appetite when I’m diving. We also purchased a DVD of the dive from Keller (whose underwater video skills are truly amazing) for the rather steep price of $100 (but worth every penny!) One of the nice things about Jack’s is you can rent an underwater digital camera for no cost, but if you decide to download the pics, it’s $40. This was appreciated, because the surge was rough enough, we didn’t really get any worthwhile picture.
Day 3 (Monday) – Kealakeakua Bay / Captain Cook / Place of Refuge / Two Steps
Rented a two person kayak at the place across from Kahalu’u Beach and headed off to Kealakeakua Bay. The cement bunker from which you launch your kayak is quite high off the water, and a little bit intimidating. But my husband and I managed to do it ourselves with no problem and off we went the mile across the bay to the Captain Cook memorial. Sadly, no dolphins but we’d gotten our fix the night before! Snorkeling at Captain Cook’s is fantastic, very calm, shallow water and a bazillion colorful fish and some eels. Wish I’d had my underwater camera here! Ate a picnic lunch on the rocks, spent lots of time snorkeling (forgetting to reapply sunscreen on my back, a mistake I would regret for the rest of the trip…) and then headed back across the bay. Fortunately, we had a couple of guys help us out of the kayak back at the bunker – my husband swears we could have done it ourselves, but I reserve some doubts… Then on we went to the Place of Refuge. This was smaller than I’d been expecting, didn’t take long at all, so we did some more snorkeling in the Honaunau Bay (Two Steps) – this is a beautiful reef and huge!! One note, we had planned originally to shore dive at this site (and on this trip) but found that the snorkeling was so good everywhere, there wasn’t a need. Got our kayak back in time and had dinner at the Kona Inn, where I had a macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi that I am still dreaming about. Entrees were huge here, I’m glad we didn’t order starters.
Day 4 (Tuesday) – Greenwell Coffee / South Point / Green Sand Beach / Black Sand Beach (My Island B&B)
We began our round the island trip, heading south where we stopped at Greenwell Farms for the coffee tasting and tour. I hadn’t been interested in doing this, having toured coffee plantations in Costa Rica, but my husband was and it turned out to be a short, but fascinating tour. The work going into the coffee made me appreciate the price a bit more! Picked up a couple of bags and headed on our way. We stopped at the super friendly South Kona Fruit Stand, where we had thick and delicious smoothies for lunch. Then on to South Point – beautiful and very windy! We hiked to the Green Sand Beach, took us about 45 minutes. Here are my thoughts on the GSB, since the questions we were asked over and over again was “Was it worth it?” If you have a 4WD, the answer is definitely yes. The way to the beach is dusty, grassy, slightly rocky prairie-like terrain – don’t be tempted to try it without 4WD. Not hard hiking, but hot and boring. The beach itself – you have to climb down a heck of a slope to get to it – is unique and isolated. The green sand is not in itself that exciting. We were fortunate that by the time we left we had the place to ourselves, which is an interesting experience – being alone at an isolated beach with beautiful blue water. But when you get down to it, it’s still just a beach and there are lots of beautiful ones on the island. In retrospect, I’m glad I went, but my trip could have been complete without it. Stopped briefly at Panalu’u Black Sand Beach – there were some turtles here, but nothing to top Kiholo Bay. Arrived at My Island B&B in Volcano. My Island’s grounds are beautiful. The rooms are nothing to write home about, they remind me a bit of a motel, but the hosts, Kai in particular, are spectacular. Very, very friendly and incredibly knowledgeable about the region. They even have their own brochures and guides written up (free!) for activities and hikes around the region which were very handy. It was also a fun crowd – everyone shares stories about lava hikes, etc. in the morning. Simple but tasty breakfast and they provide flashlights, etc. for lava hikes. My only complaint is that the walls are a bit thin, so you can hear your neighbors (TV, snoring, etc.) really well. We had dinner at Thai Thai (yummy, but spendy for Thai food) and loaded up on supplies at the general store.
Day 5 (Wednesday) – Volcano NP / Lava Hike (My Island B&B)
Woke up to a drizzly and cool day – not unusual in Volcano, we learned. Toured the Vistior’s Center and hit all of the sites on the Crater Rim Drive. We were hoping to do the Wild Lava Tube hike (12 people, only on Wednesdays and Saturdays), but sadly we didn’t act in time and it was full. I highly recommend you bring a flashlight and explore the unlit section of the Thurston Lava Tube, it was fun and a great way to escape the tour groups. Had lunch at the Country Club and checked out the Volcano Winery, where we had some tasty Guava wine. Got take out dinner at the Lava Rock Café and geared up for our hike out to see the lava. I’m going to put the lava hike info in a separate post, because I know we were desperate for information about it before we went and I learned a lot from the experience. Short story: 7 hours of hiking over lava, saw amazing lava flows into ocean, worth every minute. Easier in some ways than I expected, harder in others.
Day 5 – (Thursday) Hilo / Imailoa / Pahoa (Hot Springs) (Old Hawaiian B&B)
Another rainy morning in Volcano. We had planned to do the Kilauea Iki hike, but decided we were still a bit tuckered from the previous night’s hike. So after another tasty breakfast and chat with Kai, we headed off to Hilo where we checked in a little early at our B&B Old Hawaiian. Our room here was gorgeous with a romantic soaking tub, the setting was beautiful, Lori and Stewart very friendly and the breakfast was out of this world! Can’t recommend this place highly enough. We also had to stop on the way at the Big Island’s biggest tourist trap, Hilo Hattie’s because my husband had managed to win the Halfway to Hawaii contest (guessed the time within 20 seconds of when we’d hit the halfway point) on our United flight and we claimed his prize – a box of chocolates! Wandered a bit around downtown Hilo, stopping by to see the public library to see the famous Naha Stone pushed by King Kamehameha. Checked out Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots (neither were terribly exciting, in my opinion) and then headed to the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center at the University of Hawaii. This place has only been open a year and it was fascinating – a mix of very scientific astronomy and Hawaiian culture (the connection between them, in short, was that the ancient Hawaiians navigated by the stars). Lots of hands on stuff for both kids and grownups, and lots and lots of information about the observatories at Mauna Kea, including a replica of the control room of one. If you’ve ever toured Mauna Kea and wished you could go into the observatories, this is the place for you! They also have a planetarium show, which is again a mix of Hawaiian culture and astronomy. We spent over two hours here. After bringing our heads out of the stars, we headed towards Pahoa, in the Puna District, to soak in the Ahalanui Hot Springs. Stopped along the way for lunch at the Black Rock Café in Pahoa (surprisingly good) and checked out the Lava Trees State Park (worth the ten minute stroll around). Ahalanui was a little disappointing, just a warm pool, and a bit grungy, but not a bad place to float around on the foam noodles kindly provided by the B&B. Warning – while there is a shower, there didn’t seem to be a place to change, beyond the Porta Potty. And everyone, I mean EVERYONE, warned us continually that car break-ins were a problem in Puna. We left everything at the B&B, so not a problem for us. We had dinner that night at the Hilo Bay Café. Although it is ominously located in a strip mall, it was one of the best meals of our trip – chic interior and imaginative and delicious food!
Day 6 (Friday) – The Upper Road / Akaka Falls / Botanical Garden / Waipio Valley
Headed north out of Hilo up the Hamakua Coast, continuing our loop, bidding a sad farewell to the Old Hawaiian. A local had recommended Thom Baker’s to us for malasadas, just outside of Hilo, but we found we were too stuffed from breakfast to stop! Went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which was absolutely gorgeous – really enjoyed the exotic flowers and singing birds. Paused at a random roadside convenience stored for incredibly delicious shave ice. Stopped by Akaka Falls and walked around to Kahuna Falls. Browsed a bit at the Woodwork Gallery and Café and continued on our merry way. Had lunch in Honoka’a at Jolene’s Kau Kau, basic diner kind of place. Then we set off to hike our way into Waipio Valley. The road down, I thought, was actually harder than the road back up, because it was really tough on the knees. But the valley is lush and Eden like. Unfortunately right now (May 2007) they are experiencing a drought so NO WATERFALLS! Very sad! Bigger problem for some of the residents who depend on the running water for electricity. Still we did encounter a wild horse, forded some streams, and enjoyed ourselves at the black sand beach. The hike back up wasn’t so bad, tiring, but we just took it slow. We rewarded ourselves for our efforts with malasadas at Tex’s. Next we headed towards Waimea, where I was determined to eat dinner at one of the tasty restaurants I’d heard so much about. Since we had all of our stuff with us, we changed in the car, going from sweaty, sandy, Waipio ragamuffins to presentable in no time at all. Once in a sundress with a little makeup on, I joked I had gone from beach to belle, which caused my husband to wryly point out that I spend an awful lot of time and product at home to achieve a nearly identical look! We had dinner at Daniel Thiebault’s, where the food was good (although not fantastic, ditto on the service) but the atmosphere was superb with excellent live music. We lingered after dinner listening for quite some time. Finally, back home to Kona, passing a few wild pigs on the dark road on the way home.
Day 7 (Saturday) – Kona / Beach at Mauna Kea resort
Given that our trip was pretty active, and this was our last full day, we decided to take it easy and relax on the beach. We had intended to go snorkeling down the street at Kahalu’u Beach, but we found it crowded and unrelaxing. So we headed back up towards Kohala, intending to grab lunch at Mauna Kea resort and check out the beach there. Sadly, the resort is still closed because of earthquake damage, and the beach was full (even closed, the resort limits the number of parking passes for the beach), so we ended up eating lunch at Café Pesto in Kawaihae (great service, food just OK). On our way back down, the Mauna Kea beach was open. Our best beach experience of the trip! Calm, crystal clear waters, gorgeous uncrowded beach and phenomenal snorkeling. We finally saw a turtle in the water, a huge one having his lunch, plus hordes of lovely fish, an enormous reef, tons of eels and even a sea snake. Spent all afternoon here, relaxing. We were hoping to have dinner at Killer Tacos, but it’s closed for dinner on Saturdays so we ended up at Drysdales Two, near where we were staying, which was perfectly fine.
Departure Day 8 (Sunday) – After an unexpectedly frantic morning due to a work-related emergency (during which we learned LOTS of things on the BI are closed during Mother’s Day!!) we caught our Speedi Shuttle back to the airport with no problems at all. Our trip to Chicago turned out to be surprisingly pleasant because we were accidentally upgraded to Economy Plus (yay, extra leg room!) and survived our red eye home to Washington!
Hope this proves useful to someone out there – I always found other people’s trip reports to be very helpful with our planning!! Cheers, Carrie
May 15th, 2007, 04:55 PM
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We're heading to the BI in September and I really appreciated your report. Your snorkle and restaurant info has helped me fill in a couple blanks on our itinerary. Glad to hear you enjoyed Greenwell; that's gone from pencil to pen on paper!
May 15th, 2007, 05:52 PM
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Glad it was helpful!
I realized I should have clarified something about the green sand beach - when I said don't try it without 4WD, I should have said don't try DRIVING it without 4WD. Walking is no problem if you have the time and inclination! -Carrie
I realized I should have clarified something about the green sand beach - when I said don't try it without 4WD, I should have said don't try DRIVING it without 4WD. Walking is no problem if you have the time and inclination! -Carrie
May 18th, 2007, 04:27 PM
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Hi DoctorCarrie, thanks for the post. I have a few questions about the east side.
lunch at the Black Rock Café in Pahoa (surprisingly good) - is this a play on the Hard Rock Cafe? Are they open for dinner?
Hilo Bay Café. Although it is ominously located in a strip mall, it was one of the best meals of our trip – chic interior and imaginative and delicious food! - What type of food? How pricey?
Really appreciated your separate post on the lava hike also. We leave in a week, and I'm hoping for a huge shift in the flow so that it's nearer the access road!! LOL
lunch at the Black Rock Café in Pahoa (surprisingly good) - is this a play on the Hard Rock Cafe? Are they open for dinner?
Hilo Bay Café. Although it is ominously located in a strip mall, it was one of the best meals of our trip – chic interior and imaginative and delicious food! - What type of food? How pricey?
Really appreciated your separate post on the lava hike also. We leave in a week, and I'm hoping for a huge shift in the flow so that it's nearer the access road!! LOL
May 18th, 2007, 09:03 PM
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Black Rock Cafe definitely no relation to the Hard Rock Cafe. Think local, diner-type family restaurant in a small town with surprisingly good food and stocked with characters.
Hilo Bay Cafe - hard to classify. Creative American? Continental with a local Hawaiian twist? I had a pork loin and my husband had fish, but both had creative sauces and sides. As I recall, dinner entrees were in the mid-teens to low-twenties range.
Good luck with lava shifting!
No info on a rotating restaurant - sorry! Cheers, Carrie
Hilo Bay Cafe - hard to classify. Creative American? Continental with a local Hawaiian twist? I had a pork loin and my husband had fish, but both had creative sauces and sides. As I recall, dinner entrees were in the mid-teens to low-twenties range.
Good luck with lava shifting!
No info on a rotating restaurant - sorry! Cheers, Carrie
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oliverandharry
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Jan 2nd, 2007 09:47 AM
